If you see one movie this year, see Star Wars. But if you see two, see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." With those lines, voiced in a teaser TV spot aired during the 1999 Super Bowl, New Line Cinema unveiled the perfect marketing strategy for a property that refused to let anyone take it too seriously: Laugh at yourself, and the world laughs with you. 

Perhaps it was this style of tongue-in-cheekiness that kept Austin's ubiquitous marketing campaign from getting on everyone's nerves - at a time when a certain other (aforementioned) property's ubiquitous marketing campaign was getting on everyone's nerves. 

"I think it was the likeableness of the characters," says Mary Goss Robino, New Line's senior vp-national theatrical promotions. "The campaigns were fun, and integrated very well with the property." 

Whatever the reasons, it was this ability to deftly manage a property whose potential for overkill was huge which led EMMA judges to break categorical ranks and present New Line and its multitude of partners with an award for Best Overall Campaign of 1999. Of course, the $205 million-plus domestic box office the effort helped achieve was an important consideration, too. 

Counting up the number of Austin tie-ins is a difficult task, because for every licensed partner there seemed to be another marketer looking to steal some equity with a bad Mike Myers impersonator or a few risque comments uttered in a British accent. And that doesn't include the legions of office clowns nationwide who were shouting "Yeah, baby!" or touching their pinky to their lip for weeks before the film's June 11 release, thereby lending a word-of-mouth hand to an opening weekend that would rake in $55 million. 

New Line listed 19 partners in its EMMA entry form, which didn't include an estimated 200 Internet alliances that brought Austin to the cyberworld - and in many cases have kept him there to great success. 

With Austin, Robino and vp-national theatrical promotions Dana Laufer were in the always-enviable position of having a property with which consumer marketers were dying to align. "We got more calls than we do for other movies," says Robino. "But we picked partners because they fit." 

The sequel was probably the second most-anticipated film of the year (after you-know-what). Although 1997's Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery wasn't exactly a box-office slouch ($54 million domestically), the film became a classic on video, spawning as many cultural catch-phrases as a decade's worth of Saturday Night Live skits. 

"I knew consumers would have fun with this movie," says Scott Hunter-Smith, brand manager at White Plains, NY-based Heineken, which became one of Austin's premier partners. "I had a gut feeling this was the right movie to tie into." 

"It felt like the right vehicle from the moment it was presented to us," adds David Thompson, senior manager of brand communications at Philips Electronics North America, Knoxville, TN. 

Catching the spirit 

"Partners really understood the property, so their campaigns were right on target," says Robino. "The characters are so funny, they let companies open up their brands," adds Laufer. 

Open up is putting it mildly. Looking to appeal to the young consumers for whom Austin had become an iconoclast of sorts, marketing partners let their hair down - or, in some cases, their pants. Ever think stodgy Heineken would call itself "Heinie" and sport a naked man in a national TV spot? "This movie gave us a chance to laugh at ourselves," says Hunter-Smith. "And the response was tremendous." 

In addition to spending $7 million on the TV spots (which also featured one of the most strategic product placements in advertising history), Heineken's campaign included $2 million worth of radio ads, 250,000 P-O-P displays, a merchandise program, and hundreds of themed events in bars. Norm Marshall & Associates, Los Angeles, negotiated the deal for Heineken, while Westport, CT-based Ryan Partnership handled the promotions. 

Philips provided $7 million in TV and print ads and an in-store effort featuring both a sweepstakes and a gift-with-purchase program giving away the movie's soundtrack (from Maverick Records). "It really got our retail base very excited. We had 20,000 stores participate, and it gave us quite a bit of a bump" sales-wise, says Thompson. Norm Marshall & Associates handled. 

Other partners included - take a deep breath - Mott's, Inc., Big Boy Restaurants, MTV, People, Comedy Central, Spencer Gifts, Wheel of Fortune, America Online, First USA Visa, Starbucks, Fast Times, and GQ. 

Chic cheek 

No one got caught up in the irreverence more than Virgin Atlantic. From changing the company's name in advertising to "Virgin Shaglantic" to the official launch of an "Austin Powered" plane, and most especially to the visual comparison of Austin to ceo Richard Branson circa 1968 (Yes, the comparison was extremely valid.), London-based Virgin seemed to have a blast. It helped that Branson himself "loved the first movie," noted Sarah Buxton, Virgin's director of marketing, at a conference last fall. 

While sponsoring the Cannes Film Festival, Virgin passed out matchbooks carrying a naughty "Care for a Shag?" query. The airline also gave away 1,000 free trips to London during off-peak periods via an online sweeps. CMG Comm-unications, New York City, handled. 

The sauciness paid off. Virgin collected 200,000 qualified leads through its efforts, four times as many as projected. Brand awareness shot up 20 percent, again four times greater than expected. More than five million visitors hit the Virgin Web site on Austin's opening day (when the trips were given away), and 90 percent of the prize winners ultimately brought a paying friend along with them. 

"It's a big risk to play around with your brand, but it gets people to wake up and take notice," says Buxton. 

All involved praised the willing involvement of writer and star Mike Myers and the cast. Without Myers' cooperation, the marketing campaign could easily have been as big a bust as one of Dr. Evil's world-domination schemes. "You can't pull off something of this magnitude without the support of the star," says Robino. "Mike was very involved in the creative process." 

"It was probably one of the most successful things we've ever done," says Hunter Smith, referring to results that included a 10-percent sales lift, a 26-percent increase in display activity, and more than 100 new accounts.

 "It was the hottest property of the summer next to Star Wars," reminds Thompson. "It was very successful all around." 

Sometimes, second-best is good enough indeed.